ietf-822
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Re: MIME's 'Content-Disposition' Header

1995-01-13 15:05:54
3.6  Content-Disposition and the Main Message

    It is permissible to use Content-Disposition on the main body
    of an [RFC 822] message.  Althouth the meanings of the two
    current dispositions (`inline' and `attachment') are
    respectively vacuous and undefined, it is anticipated that
    future dispositions might be more amenable for use with main
    messages (one might imagine a "print" disposition to
    implement a print-by-mail service, for example).

A disposition of attachment with a main body makes sense to me.
Suppose the main body is a binary data file of some sort.  It would
make sense not to automatically display it to the user.

Both inline and attachment make sense with the main body if a file name
is specified.

But in both of these cases you are not labelling the main body -- there isn't
one! You are just labelling the one and only object that the message happens 
to
contain, and that becomes the "main body" only by virtue of being the *only*
body.

Main body here refers to the (usually initial) part that contains purely
descriptive material. The current dispositions really don't make sense in this
context -- such material is inherently inline and not an attachment of any
sort.

                               Ned

OK, I see what you are saying.  I was thinking of a message consisting of
only a single part.  Perhaps some clarification in the text might prevent
others from falling into the same trap.